83 replies to this topic

[voltaire]

Quotes

"Behind the honeyed but patently absurd pleas for equality is a ruthless drive for placing themselves (the elites) at the top of a new hierarchy of power" -- Murray Rothbard - Egalitarianism and the Elites (1995)

If a conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one. If a liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.
If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat. If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.
If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.
If a conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels. Liberals demand that those they don't like be shut down.
If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church. A liberal non-believer wants any mention of ******* and religion silenced. (Unless it's a foreign religion, of course!)
If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it. A liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.


“When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion — when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing — when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors — when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you — when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice — you may know that your society is doomed.” Ayn Rand

"World socialism as a whole, and all the figures associated with it, are shrouded in legend; its contradictions are forgotten or concealed; it does not respond to arguments but continually ignores them--all this stems from the mist of irrationality that surrounds socialism and from its instinctive aversion to scientific analysis... The doctrines of socialism seethe with contradictions, its theories are at constant odds with its practice, yet due to a powerful instinct these contradictions do not in the least hinder the unending propaganda of socialism. Indeed, no precise, distinct socialism even exists; instead there is only a vague, rosy notion of something noble and good, of equality, communal ownership, and justice: the advent of these things will bring instant euphoria and a social order beyond reproach." -- Solzhenitsyn

Stocks

"when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you"

Surely this applies more to the capitalists than the workers.

All nations and social systems have graft and corruption. We know that and it is just a matter of degree.

It is bleedingly obvious that the upper tier of capitalism in hand with elected officials is where the disease lies.

To blame socialism is a stretch.

Its not that socialism is free of the disease but lets get real here.

[stocks]

Venezuela Addresses Toilet Paper Crisis

Socialist Minister blames the media

First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities – toilet paper.

Blaming political opponents for the shortfall, as it does for other shortages, the government says it will import 50m rolls to boost supplies.

That was little comfort to consumers struggling to find toilet paper on Wednesday.

"This is the last straw," said Manuel Fagundes, a shopper hunting for tissue in Caracas. "I'm 71 years old and this is the first time I've seen this."

One supermarket visited by the Associated Press in the capital on Wednesday was out of toilet paper. Another had just received a fresh batch, and it quickly filled up with shoppers as the word spread.

"I've been looking for it for two weeks," said Cristina Ramos. "I was told that they had some here and now I'm in line."

Economists say Venezuela's shortages stem from price controls meant to make basic goods available to the poorest parts of society and the government's controls on foreign currency.

"State-controlled prices – prices that are set below market-clearing price – always result in shortages. The shortage problem will only get worse, as it did over the years in the Soviet Union," said Steve Hanke, professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University.


http://www.guardian....PD9qw6E.twitter

[stocks]

Neofeudal Debtocracy of rentiers and debt-serfs

Is this a healthy economic system? No. Is it sustainable? No. Is it even capitalism? No. It's a Neofeudal Debtocracy of rentiers and debt-serfs and hot-money driven asset bubbles that are passed off as "investments" to the credulous and unwary

The problem is central banks have created a vast pool of credit-money seeking a return that is far larger than the pool of sound investment opportunities. In a world burdened by over-capacity in almost every sector, hot money is driven to seek the next emerging asset bubble as the only place to skim a yield. Empty flats in London, Manhattan or Shanghai, oil leases in Gabon, 10,000 sun-baked rental homes in Arizona, The Nikkei stock market, shares in U.S. utilities, bat guano futures--none of these asset bubbles make any sense in a world where credit is costly and scarce.

There are two other characteristics of this New Normal Bubble Economy:

1. Everyone who doesn't have privileged access to vast sums of money at near-zero real interest rates is left out; no bubble gravy for the debt-serfs, except for those who qualify for socialized mortgages from FHA or other federal agencies. (And the idea behind these government-backed mortgages isn't to enable serfs to gamble and win in the latest housing bubble, it's to lock them into debt-serfdom where they're making mortgage payments forever on a depreciating asset.)

2. All asset bubbles pop, destroying the phantom wealth of those holding claims on the underlying assets.


http://www.oftwomind...ubbles6-13.html

[stocks]

QE Stimulus Is Failing

Socialism doesn't work? Who knew?

Was former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker correct when he said concerning quantitative easing that its "beneficial effects...appear limited and diminishing over time"?

After four-and-a-half years of QE we can draw some conclusions about QE's usefulness. First, QE can be likened to a stimulant administered to an auto crash victim who needs time and rest, above all, to regain health. The stimulus may trick the body into thinking that recovery is happening faster than nature intended, but the attempt at short-circuiting natural processes only provides a temporary metabolic boost and does nothing to address fundamental health issues.

Secondly, QE does indeed, as Volcker suggested, provide only diminishing returns. The recent experiences of China and the U.S. as well as Japan's 20% stock market plunge bear this out. QE has also failed to provide the promised boost to employment and has resulted mainly in increased consumption among higher end consumers; its benefits have largely passed over middle and lower class consumers.

Finally, the basic assumption that QE would benefit corporations, which in turn would use the increased revenues to expand their workforce, has proven to be a false. While QE did indeed expand corporate profits by boosting stock prices, those profits were used by corporations to cut their workforces through various efficiency measures. Moreover, the profits of the largest multinational firms were hoarded in overseas banks instead of being directly re-invested into domestic production. America's working force has seen precious little of those record profits while the corporate state has expanded at the expense of working class taxpayers.

As if all of that weren't enough, we're now faced with the perverse possibility that a "tapering" of the Fed's stimulus measures may result in considerably lower stock prices down the line. This in turn would undo a substantial part of the recovery on the high-end of the economic scale, thereby undermining the entire 5-year experiment with QE.



http://www.safehaven...ted-to-stimulus

[AChartist]

Whenever I see the parroting of tv constructs, the labels and buzzwords of the dialectic, these arent the schooled parrots that know nothing but know for sure what isn't so, I don't even think it exists. Everything they think and do and say, are fiction that started with a dialectic buzzword, just shooled parrots. It don't take much just hillary stating the vast right wing conspiracy can create a rabbit trail of deception in a very large number of the population, parroted of years becomes a reality that they exist it and that is going on in parallel trails manufactured for different fear and hatred segments. And they just keep parroting fiction.

[voltaire]

Capitalism is on its last legs. It was always destined to fail. It has never lasted long at any time. When a minority have all the wealth, revolution is never far away. The serfs will always decapitate the robber barons eventually. Its not that the serfs want something for nothing. They just want a fair go and that is getting farther away. Today we have the impoverished and the working poor and the failing middle class and the super rich. It can't last. Capitalism believes that greed is good and exploitation is the way to achieve it. The better model is co-operation and that doesn't necessarily mean communism. Unionism is for some reason decried as exploitation by the workers yet one only has to look at the past to see what abuse was made of labour. The heroes of early American industry were despicable in their treatment of those in their employ. And it wasn't just in the US. A fair days work for a fair day's pay has always been a reasonable mantra. A pity capitalism has avoided it and yes labour too has been guilty at times. Take the intern system that is spreading wider. People working for nothing and almost all then not gaining a job. Shocking. Is that fair and reasonable? A minimum wage that no one can live on. Shameful. A health system that leaves many homeless and bankrupt. Disgraceful. An education system that rewards the wealthy and leaves the rest indebted for decades. Mind blowing. Capitalism, time it was tossed or radically reformed.

[stocks]

Obamanomics Explained

Businesses are reducing part-time hours across the board from 30-34 hours to 25 hours or less because Obamacare defines full-time work as 30 hours. Business owners (small and large) are cutting the hours people work so they can avoid penalties for not offering health-care insurance.

Obamacare Death Rattle

How do you spell Obamacare? F-I-A-S-C-O

Antonin Scalia put it in a brilliantly sarcastic dissent aimed squarely at Chief Justice Roberts, "the Court today decided to save a statute Congress did not write," adding that the ruling "creates a debilitated, inoperable version of health care regulation ... the public does not expect."

Keep in mind Scalia's words inoperable and debilitated. They were not accidental.

Scalia was making it clear that he was in total agreement with all of the Tea Party folks, Sarah Palin, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, and others who had been insisting for three years that this law was not only unconstitutional, but a bureaucratic disaster with zero chance of working.


Read more: http://www.americant...l#ixzz2YHIiDgcN
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[voltaire]

"Sarah Palin, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh". Surely you don't regard these loonies as mentors. They are simple minded and that's being generous. Quote someone or two with intellect NOT these dummies.

[mss]

"Sarah Palin, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh".

Surely you don't regard these loonies as mentors.

They are simple minded and that's being generous.

Quote someone or two with intellect NOT these dummies.

Sadly you think you are the only mentor to follow about American policy etc and yet you are the true loony - and worse - you do not live here.

But our "Freedom of speech" allows you to try and bad mouth every thought of Americans.

mss

Edited by mss, 08 July 2013 - 07:24 AM.

[stocks]

Obamacare Death Rattle

How do you spell Obamacare? F-I-A-S-C-O

Antonin Scalia put it in a brilliantly sarcastic dissent aimed squarely at Chief Justice Roberts, "the Court today decided to save a statute Congress did not write," adding that the ruling "creates a debilitated, inoperable version of health care regulation ... the public does not expect."

Keep in mind Scalia's words inoperable and debilitated. They were not accidental.

Scalia was making it clear that he was in total agreement with all of the Tea Party folks, Sarah Palin, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, and others who had been insisting for three years that this law was not only unconstitutional, but a bureaucratic disaster with zero chance of working.

Surprised by the recent waivers from the Obama administration on the Affordable Care Act? Get ready for more, writes Margot Sanger-Katz at National Journal, because the employer mandate is far from the only piece of ObamaCare that’s not ready for prime time. In fact, it might be easier to select the few components that might be ready for the implementation target date than to number those that won’t:



http://hotair.com/ar...ion-impossible/